The Halloween season is almost here, and if you are looking for a few free printable lesson plans to share with your middle school classroom, then you are in the right place! Fall is my favorite season, and I have created several ELA resources you can utilize for reading and language arts instruction. This post features my free Halloween printables, but you can also check out my list of October ELA favorites here.
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The first, Pumpkin Harvesting, is an informational close reading text with word work and reader response questions. I use my close reading passages with students who are struggling with comprehension. These worksheets are great for students who struggle to go back into a reading selection and cite evidence to determine the correct responses. While we work on these skills throughout the year, I always need high-interest passages I can use for whole-class, small-group, or independent practice.
This Pumpkin Harvesting Close Reading FREEBIE will help your students:
- better understand/reinforce CLOSE READING strategies
- identify how to harvest pumpkins
- determine the meaning of unknown words using context clues
- cite evidence from the one-page text to support responses.
Click the image to grab free printable #1:
One activity my family enjoys each year is our trip to the local fall festival, which is called the Harvest Moon Festival. The festival is held at one of our favorite family parks, and it has fun for everyone. We paint pumpkins and trick-or-treat bags, watch puppet shows, make S'mores, and eat way too much kettle corn!
Instead of just wondering why it is called the Harvest Moon Festival, I decided to do a little research a few years ago. As a reading teacher, I turned the fun of this festival and my research into a reader's theater FREEBIE. I wanted to share a little about its meaning and create a resource an upper elementary or middle school teacher can use as a Daily 5 resource.
I love utilizing reader's theater scripts in my classroom to excite my students about different topics. They are also a perfect tool for building fluency and comprehension. My students LOVE taking on the roles of different characters, and the practice they get from reading aloud is an important part of our language arts goals.
This 9-page resource lets students engage with a high-interest passage while reading to someone, listening to reading, focusing on word work, and reading to self. The worksheets at the end give teachers a chance to check reading comprehension and journal-writing skills.
This Harvest Moon FREEBIE includes:
- clear directions for seamless implementation
- aligned to Common Core standards
- 2-page, 6-character script so multiple groups can perform
- context clue word work
- reader response questions
- post-reading journal prompt to enhance student writing
Click the image to grab free printable #2
Finally, I have a free fable-based close reading passage that aligns well with the Halloween season. While the tale itself isn't about trick-or-treating, it includes a lesson on how costumes can conceal one's true motive.
This October Close Reading Passage includes:
- The Hen and the Wolf: Fable (780L)
- Reading comprehension questions and journal prompt
- Answer Key
- Estimated Lexile Measure: 690-1300L
Click the image to grab free printable #3
Use these tools in collaboration with one another to enhance student work with fictional and informational text.
If your students loved Harvest Moon and you want a script that is ALL Halloween, check out my Halloween Reader's Theater PDF Script and Toolkit. The Happy Halloween That Almost Wasn't is a 5-page, 11-character script with reader response questions, context clue work, journal prompts, and a Halloween T-shirt craftivity, all in one print-and-go PDF for upper elementary and middle school.
